Therefore you should say:My prayer is as precious,holy,and pleasing to God as that of St.Paul or of the most holy saints.This is the reason:For I will gladly grant that he is holier in his person,but not on account of the commandment;since God does not regard prayer on account of the person,but on account of His word and obedience thereto.For on the commandment on which all the saints rest their prayer I,too,rest mine.Moreover I pray for the same thing for which they all pray and ever have prayed;besides,I have just as great a need of it as those great saints,yea,even a greater one than they.
Let this be the first and most important point,that all our prayers must be based and rest upon obedience to God,irrespective of our person,whether we be sinners or saints,worthy or unworthy.And we must know that God will not have it treated as a jest,but be angry,and punish all who do not pray,as surely as He punishes all other disobedience;next,that He will not suffer our prayers to be in vain or lost.For if He did not intend to answer your prayer,He would not bid you pray and add such a severe commandment to it.
In the second place,we should be the more urged and incited to pray because God has also added a promise,and declared that it shall surely be done to us as we pray,as He says Ps.50,15:Call upon Me in the day of trouble:I will deliver thee.And Christ in the Gospel of St.
Matthew,7,7:Ask,and it shall be given you.For every one that asketh receiveth.Such promises ought certainly to encourage and kindle our hearts to pray with pleasure and delight,since He testifies with His [own]word that our prayer is heartily pleasing to Him,moreover,that it shall assuredly be heard and granted,in order that we may not despise it or think lightly of it,and pray at a venture.
This you can hold up to Him and say:Here I come,dear Father,and pray,not of my own purpose nor upon my own worthiness,but at Thy commandment and promise,which cannot fail or deceive me.Whoever,therefore,does not believe this promise must know again that he excites God to anger as a person who most highly dishonors Him and reproaches Him with falsehood.
Besides this,we should be incited and drawn to prayer because in addition to this commandment and promise God anticipates us,and Himself arranges the words and form of prayer for us,and places them upon our lips as to how and what we should pray,that we may see how heartily He pities us in our distress,and may never doubt that such prayer is pleasing to Him and shall certainly be answered;which [the Lord's Prayer]is a great advantage indeed over all other prayers that we might compose ourselves.For in them the conscience would ever be in doubt and say:I have prayed,but who knows how it pleases Him,or whether I have hit upon the right proportions and form?Hence there is no nobler prayer to be found upon earth than the Lord's Prayer which we daily pray because it has this excellent testimony,that God loves to hear it,which we ought not to surrender for all the riches of the world.
And it has been prescribed also for this reason that we should see and consider the distress which ought to urge and compel us to pray without ceasing.For whoever would pray must have something to present,state,and name which he desires;if not,it cannot be called a prayer.
Therefore we have rightly rejected the prayers of monks and priests,who howl and growl day and night like fiends;but none of them think of praying for a hair's breadth of anything.And if we would assemble all the churches,together with all ecclesiastics,they would be obliged to confess that they have never from the heart prayed for even a drop of wine.For none of them has ever purposed to pray from obedience to God and faith in His promise,nor has any one regarded any distress,but (when they had done their best)they thought no further than this,to do a good work,whereby they might repay God,as being unwilling to take anything from Him,but wishing only to give Him something.
But where there is to be a true prayer there must be earnestness.Men must feel their distress,and such distress as presses them and compels them to call and cry out then prayer will be made spontaneously,as it ought to be,and men will require no teaching how to prepare for it and to attain to the proper devotion.But the distress which ought to concern us most,both as regards ourselves and every one,you will find abundantly set forth in the Lord's Prayer.Therefore it is to serve also to remind us of the same,that we contemplate it and lay it to heart,lest we become remiss in prayer.For we all have enough that we lack,but the great want is that we do not feel nor see it.Therefore God also requires that you lament and plead such necessities and wants,not because He does not know them,but that you may kindle your heart to stronger and greater desires,and make wide and open your cloak to receive much.
